MEMO from DNC
DNC Memo
From: Patrick
Gaspard, DNC Executive Director
To: The
DNC Family and Interested Parties
Date: August 4, 2011
Subj: Shocker:
Washington Pundits Got the Debt Fight Fallout Wrong
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The
subject line of this memo aside, anyone who has followed Washington in
recent years won’t be a bit surprised to find out that it is a town
which rushes to judgment, has a pack mentality and makes declarations
of winners and losers without regard to the facts.
There
is no better recent example of this than this past Sunday when supposed
details of the debt and deficit deal reached between Congressional
Democrats and Republicans and President Obama began to leak from
“anonymous” sources. Then one or two supposedly wired
journalists
tweet their reaction and begin making declarations of which side won
and which side lost and which party’s supporters will be pleased and
which will be enraged. In this case – certainly, certainly the
conventional wisdom was that the Republicans won and the Democrats lost
and Republicans partisans would be euphoric while Democratic partisans
would be in the dumps.
Fortunately,
we don’t have to depend only on the rush to judgment of a small cadre
of Washington-based pundits and activists making their assessments off
of one-sided leaks and spin – there is a thing called public opinion
that we can look to for a more accurate portrayal.
The
fact is, since President Obama reached a debt and deficit compromise
with Republicans over the weekend, CNN and Gallup polls show that a
hefty majority of Democrats and Liberals support the deal while a hefty
majority of Republicans, and particularly the all-important Tea Party
Republicans, oppose it. If you’re waiting for the rush of
stories,
columns and blogs with the inside the beltway intelligentsia admitting
they missed the mark on this – don’t hold your breath. The very
folks
who rush to judgment on these things are rarely in a rush to admit they
were wrong.
So,
despite the conventional wisdom on Sunday about how this plan would be
perceived, actual public opinion shows a very different story.
Gallup: Nearly
Two-Thirds Of Republicans And Conservatives Oppose The Deal. “The
results are reversed on the other side, with large majorities of
Republicans (64 percent) and conservatives (64 percent) expressing
disapproval.” [Huffington Post, 8/3/11]
- Gallup:
Majority Of Democrats And Liberals Approve Of The Deal. “According
to the Gallup poll, a majority of Democrats (58 percent) and liberals
(51 percent) approve of the deal, although significant minorities of
both groups express disapproval (28 and 35 percent respectively).”
[Huffington Post, 8/3/11]
CNN Poll: 58 Percent Of Republicans
Disapprove Of The Deal. According
to
a recent CNN/ORC poll, 58 percent of Republicans disapprove of the
deal compared to 35 percent who support it. [CNN, 8/2/11]
- CNN: 63
Percent Of Democrats Approve Deal. According to a recent CNN/ORC poll, 63
percent of Democrats approve of the deal compared to 32 percent who
disapprove it. [CNN, 8/2/11]
The
numbers show that while Democrats and liberals supported the
President’s commitment to reaching a fair compromise, Republicans and
Conservatives overwhelmingly opposed compromise. Of course this
should
be of little surprise. Poll after poll during the course of this
discussion showed that Democrats by large margins favored compromise
while the vast majority of Republicans opposed any compromise with
Democrats whatsoever.
Of
course, the post agreement reaction to the deal from Democrats isn’t
just a function of their willingness to compromise, but is also a
function of the agreement itself. The fact is, there is a lot
about
this agreement for Democrats to like.
First,
the agreement prevented the nation from defaulting on our debt for the
first time in our nation’s history and it guarantees that Republicans
cannot hold our economy hostage again over the next 18 months with the
threat of a catastrophic default hanging over our heads.
Importantly,
the agreement also protected important investments in America’s future,
including aid for college students, and it guaranteed that Social
Security, Medicare benefits, and Medicaid would not be gutted to pay
for deficit reduction.
Finally,
the agreement set out a process by which America can get its fiscal
house in order – not by balancing the budget on the backs of the middle
class, but by coming to a balanced agreement that includes
revenue-increasing tax reforms.
But
even beyond what the agreement included, Democrats are undoubtedly
buoyed by what it didn’t. The agreement moved the needle very far
from
where this debate started with the House GOP just a few short months
ago – ending Medicare and slashing critical programs for education, job
creation and the poor. In essence, this agreement was a stinging
defeat for the Ryan/House Republican Budget approach and was also a
thorough rejection of the GOP’s so called “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan
which was simply the Tea Party version of the Ryan plan on
steroids.
This
is not to suggest that this agreement was perfect or that Democrats
view it that way. But in a world where GOP Presidential
candidates are
failing the leadership test by following the extreme wing of the GOP
and the Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell says our nation’s
debt ceiling is, “a
hostage that’s worth ransoming”, a compromise that protected Medicare
and Social Security and averted a debt crisis was a win. And
according
to CNN and Gallup, a majority of Democrats and Liberals agree.